On Thursday David and Trudie from S/V Persephone rented a car and drove down to Salinas from Ponce where they are still anchored awaiting the arrival a friend from the states. We made arrangements to meet up with them and the Crew from the S/V Leahona, Mark and his lovely wife Willie. Willie has family that lives here in Puerto Rico and knew a fantastic place up in the hills of Guavate that is known for a traditional Puerto Rican specialty, Roast Pork. It felt strange moving along at highway speeds after traveling at the top speed of 6-7 kts for the last few months. The terrain we drove through as we left the coast and headed into the interior of the Island reminded me of the hills of southern California in the springtime when it is green. We then turned onto a windy road that led us deeper into the hills and into a verdant forest complete with large stalks of bamboo and vines hanging from the branches of the trees. David, Trudie, Michael and I followed close on the heels of Mark and Willie as I don’t think we could have found our way there or back without help. We pulled up to an open air pavilion/restaurant with gazebos and tables set next to a beautiful mountain stream. We walked over to the front of the pavilion to order lunch and found ourselves face to face with a couple of large whole pigs tied to a spit over an open fire. We placed our order for 3 lbs of pork to be shared between the 6 of us which they proceeded to remove from Porky via machete and serve up with a variety of other PR delicacies, Blood Sausage, Tostinos, Sweet Potato, Pigeon Peas and Rice….etc. But the Pork…….Wow, juicy, tender, flavorful, with bits of crispy pork skin to munch on as well. Anthony Bordain always professed to be in heaven whenever he came across a great local place known for their roast pork, I now understand. Eat your heart out Tony! Lunch that day was also reminiscent of the traditional Caribbean fare served by our good friend Eddie at our damp but delightful wedding reception this last summer in the mountains of Pagosa Springs. If was a great afternoon of shared stories and great food. Thanks Mark and Willie for inviting us to experience this PR Specialty!
Tag: Puerto Rico
Maintenance and Reprovisioning in Salinas , PR
May 3-7, 2010
We were up at 4:30am to try to make some miles further east before the trade winds really kick up around 8:30 -9:00am. It was still dark and we were treated to an amazing lightening show just south of the Island with bolts streaking across the sky and down to the water. The winds were blowing around 16 – 18 knots out of the east but some of that was created by the storm moving by us. I placed the coordinates into the Chartplotter GPS to mark our waypoints and we headed out. Mike went below to start the water maker and the Ice maker…..two things that we run only when underway as they draw a lot of power. With the seas a bit spirited in those winds, he came up after getting both appliances running, looking a bit green. A few minutes of deep breathing, followed by a quick nap in the cockpit and he was fine. We entered the entrance to the harbor at Salinas and were met by the sight of at least 40 – 50 sailboats. We suspect that the rumors we heard about Salinas being more cruiser friendly were correct. We caught up with 5 other boats we have crossed paths with before. S/V Sanctuary, S/V Just Imagine, S/V Cativa, S/V Leahona, and S/V Nauti- Nauti. We walked around town near the marina to do some exploring on foot and stopped by to talk to a few of our friends. Still no Wifi available in the harbor. Drakes Bar and Grill has Wifi available and is located just outside of Marina de Salinas, their burgers are some of the best ever and so we were able to make a couple of skype calls and we signed our boat name on their wall and recognized many of the signatures of those who had come before us. The harbor was calm and so we spent much of our time on boat maintenance projects. Michael took our non-functional spare alternator that was one of our great e-bay finds (Buyer Beware) into the alternator shop here to see if they could get the parts to repair it. He has also spent quite a few hours dismantling and reassembling our windlass, which is the device that we use to pull up the anchor. It is slipping and we have had to pull the anchor up by hand which is rough on the ole back. Michael has isolated the problem, unfortunately our windlass is also no longer in production and so we have had to order spare parts from Scotland to be sent to us in the USVI hopefully in about a week or so. We also decided it was also time to invest in a new length of main line for the headsail. Michael had noticed some chaffing and had cut off part of it already but when we did rerun the line we found that the old line was brittle and nearly worn through in a critical location. It probably would have broken at the next haul of the mainsail. (Whew!) There is a small marine store here in Salinas and we have put a number of miles on our bicycles riding around between there, the alternator shop and the grocery store. We reprovisioned with some of the harder to find items that we enjoy on the boat along with cases of beer and soda. All this we were able to tie onto the back of the bicycles or carry in backpacks and the basket I keep on the front of mine. On more than one occasion we looked like a couple of pack mules as we made our way back to the marina with our supplies. I purchased and installed the zipper on our Cockpit Sunshade but had to get some help from the sail repair shop to fix the zipper on the dodger as the material was too heavy for my machine to handle.
Caja del Muertos
May 2nd,2010
Michael and I pulled up anchor and followed the fishing boats out of the harbor and east 7 miles to Caja del Muertos, Coffin Island. It is also a favored spot for families to take a ferry on the weekends and hang out in the water along the beaches. We arrived at the same time as the ferry from the mainland and found a mooring near the ferry dock just off the beach in about 8 feet of water. It was a coast guard post that is now a nature reserve. There is a lighthouse on the top of the island that was built by the Spanish in 1887. We watched a small local sailboat come into the anchorage and drop sail and anchor in one smooth movement, stern to the beach, opposite the wind. Within minutes a BBQ off the back end of the boat was fired up and the men aboard were dropping fishing lines into the water and catching fish for the grill. It wasn’t just confidence that they would catch fish….they had a system. One man would swim around the boat with a mask and snorkel and then tell the guy with the pole where to drop the bait. If that wasn’t impressive enough, we then watched as he came up with a fish in his bare hands. Wow! Since we are only staying one day we opted to leave Mighty Mouse on the davits and swam to shore to explore. We hiked the trail up to the lighthouse encountering many drought resistant plants and organ pipe cactus that was prolific and up to 30ft tall. Iguanas and Lizards scurried beneath the scrub and cacti. We found a monument that was erected by the Masons who used the island in the 1800’s for their clandestine meetings when the Spanish had forbid them to meet openly. The lighthouse was closed and locked so we explored around the grounds and took pictures from the observation platform back down at DD. Frigates and Pelicans rode the thermals around the Island and after our hike we sat in the shade and watched their aerobatics. We swam back to DD and at 3:30 the Ferry took their passengers back to the mainland and the other families on small boats who had come for the day also returned home. By 5:00pm Dancing Dolphin had the Island to herself.
Touring Old Town Ponce
May 1, 2010
The fishing boats headed out to begin the competition around 8:00am. Michael and I got out the Bicycles and spent the day riding around Ponce. We rode a couple of miles to the Plaza del Caribe Mall and found ourselves strolling in air conditioned abundance. This was a typical American mall scene with masses of people everywhere and lines of people spilling from the banks located in the mall and then later at the check-out counters of the many stores. You wouldn’t know there was a recession if you visited this mall. Of course it is the 1st of the month and a Saturday so maybe it was more crowded than usual. It felt strange and a bit overwhelming to the senses being surrounded by so much and so many after traveling in towns and countries with so little. After cooling down at the mall we continued our ride into the heart of old town Ponce riding among and photographing the beautiful old buildings. I had put my basket on my bike and we had brought the backpack so we stopped at a couple of stores and picked up a few items from our provisioning list. When we got back to the boat, David and Trudie invited us to Persephone for Mojitos. The sun was setting and we watched as the large sport fishing boats returned to the club a few sporting Marlin flags to signal that they had a successful day. The Yacht and Fishing Club music and festivities continued that evening and well into the night. It was surprising to see some of the some of the crew of the fishing yachts up so early the next morning after partying so late the night before but up they were and on their way by 8:00am again the next day.
Guilligans Island
April 29th, 2010
We left La Parguera and traveled east to an anchorage next to what is called Guilligans Island by locals after the 1970’s TV show. I guess there used to be a local fisherman that looked a lot like the main character Bob Denver and the Island has a shallow bay where people come to lounge in the water sipping cool drinks. They really understand how to beat the heat…..just don’t get out of the water. The island has been equipped by the local parks service with picnic tables and brick BBQ’s for the enjoyment of visitors that bring their coolers and take the ¼ mile ferry ride over to the little Island on the weekends. Mike and I traveled over to the Ferry dock and did a walk down the beach on the mainland side. At the dock we were met by a black cat that kept crossing our path so we tempted fate and visited with him a few minutes. We came upon Copamarina All Inclusive Resort and toured their beautifully manicured grounds. We walked along the shore to the public beach where families were enjoying the beautiful weather and cool water. We took Mighty Mouse over to Guilligans Island humming the theme song from the TV show and walked the couple of trails we found through the mangroves. Supposedly a slave woman had escaped at one time and had swum over to the island and lived there undiscovered for many years. It was hard for us to imagine anyone living on this Island with its tangle of mangroves and lack of fresh water.
La Parguera
April 27th & 28th, 2010
We left the bustle that is Boqueron at Sunrise and made our way around Cabo Rojo to the Little Town of La Parguera. S/V Persephone had left the day before and found the town to be virtually closed down. It had once been a place where, like Boqueron, college students would congregate on the weekends. The residents of the town did not like many of the problems that came with hosting throngs of out of town partiers every weekend and so the town began instituting and the local police began enforcing a number of ordinances. The hefty fines imposed produced the intended results and drove the party goers back to Boqueron. We arrived to find a handful of souvenir kiosks and a couple of restaurants with just a few local people in them. There were other restaurants and Bars along the main coastal road but none looked to be in business. We walked around and looked for what was listed in the guidebooks as the local Mall where there was supposed to be a large grocery store and a post office. We found the Mall with everything, including the Post Office, closed down completely and permanently. We also asked where we might be able to purchase fuel and were told we had to go to the next town as the gas station has also closed down. Like I said they got rid of all the undesirable behaviors including the annoyance of having to make a living. That said it is a quaint and quiet little town with a small local convenience store where we picked up a few supplies. The harbor is protected by a number of reefs that we had to navigate before we anchored just off the main ferry dock. As soon as we dropped anchor we had a guest come aboard. He was a Caribbean Martin and he thought the cavity in our boom looked like it might be a place to check out for nesting. He came by to check out the boat 3 or 4 times and was kind enough to pose briefly for a photo before deciding that maybe nesting in a moving boat wasn’t the best place. We along with our friends David and Trudie, took the dinks out to explore. There are many cute bungalows built on stilts over the water and painted bright colors. We rode over to what is known as the 2nd Brightest Phosphorescent Bay in the world and explored the mangroves that surrounded it. The roots of the mangroves are covered with oysters and Pelicans and other birds were abundant. That evening we returned to the bay to see the phosphorescence. The bay is best experienced on a new moon and we had arrived at the Full Moon but were still able to see the pale blue glow stirred up by the prop on the dingy motor as we did doughnuts in the calm waters. The sky was dotted with just a few clouds that we kept hoping would cross the moon so we could see the phosphorescence a little better. The evening breeze was just slightly cooler than the warm water that surrounded us and the experience was one of peace and quiet beauty. A lovely evening to say the least! We spent the better part of the next day swimming, fishing and exploring some of the reefs before a brief squall that loomed on the horizon drove us back to our boats. Mike hung the Sunshade I had made for the cockpit and we had David and Trudie over for Nachos and a couple of Pina Coladas while we watched the sunset.
Beautiful, Busy, Boqueron
We had settled into relaxation mode, taking daily swims to cool off and walks around the town and even hanging our hammock up on Deck. Boqueron is a lively place at night and on the weekends as it fills up with college kids and families that come to enjoy the atmosphere and the beach scene. Music pours from doorways and windows of homes, bars and restaurants. Colorful roadside vendors sell a variety of food including fresh oysters and clams on the halfshell, jewelry, t-shirts, and of course winning lottery numbers, while local artists display their wares and talents. The 1/2 mile long beach and the park behind it fill with locals and even more music. There are rows and rows of bungalows in the park and along the beach provided by the park service, it is somewhat like upscale camping. Families bring their coolers filled with food and drink and stay for the entire weekend. We were walking through the other day and watched as dozens and dozens of porta-toilets were strategically placed throughout the park and the grounds were marked off in a grid pattern. We discovered that the beach and park would be even busier this weekend as there is a Regional Boy Scout Jamboree taking place here. We watched and the Scouts began to arrive and set up their tents. It brought back a lot of great memories of time spent with Corey and Sage at various scouting events. That is until 4:45 this morning when they began to play reveille through loud speakers mounted on a truck that drove around the park grounds blaring what I can only describe as a Puerto Rican version of a marching band tune played continuously for 45 minutes and interspersed with sirens and other loud sounds to drive the scouts, and a few sailors, from their beds. From the boat we can see the different troops in a rainbow of matching color t-Shirts participating in a variety of events and activities along the beach.
Living the Dream 